The age-old tourist tradition of feeding pigeons in Venice's St Mark's Square came to an abrupt end on Wednesday when a controversial city council ban swept into effect.
While many visitors to the lagoon city find its soaring flocks of pigeons charming, the council says they are a public health menace and a nuisance, eroding monuments with their excrement.
Although feeding the pigeons has long been outlawed in other parts of the lagoon city, Mayor Massimo Cacciari had to take on the square's 19 licensed birdseed sellers in order to extend the measure to Venice's most famous square.
The vendors staged angry protests on Wednesday against the council's decision.
Standing by their locked-up stands, they held up banners blasting Cacciari and his centre-left administration.
''Thanks mayor for killing off a century-old tradition. What kind of Venetian are you, Cacciari?'' said one of the banners.
''Next it will be the gondoliers'', said another banner.
The sellers argued that feeding the pigeons has been a top tourist attraction on the square for more than 100 years.
They pointed to several groups of visitors who, at the risk of a hefty fine, were still feeding the pigeons with bread they had bought for the purpose.
Venice has for years been trying to cut its estimated 40,000-strong pigeon population which produces thousands of tonnes of droppings a day.
The council says the birds - described as ''flying rats'' by Cacciari - carry disease and that their highly acidic guano is eroding the city's historic facades and statues.
But the birdseed vendors remain convinced that the council has exaggerated the problem and are seeking 150 euros per day from the council as compensation for their lost jobs.
Failing that, they want the council to issue them with permits to sell souvenirs on the square.
Vendor Michele Zennaro, 43, told ANSA earlier this month: ''We were ready to distribute contraceptive pills (with the seed) in a serious experiment, and then we were talking about the possibility of destroying sick or older birds which are very visible with the change of season when there is less food.
''But instead the council insisted on this ban which will destroy the square's traditional image''.
Zennaro's family has sold packets of grain in the square for three generations and he supports a wife and two children on his earnings.
Local people became less sympathetic to the vendors' plight after a report by the Nomisma research group found that the presence of pigeons in Venice costs each resident some 275 euros a year to clean up the mess and damage.
Some experts even claim the excrement, by eroding flagstones, has increased the risk of the 'acqua alta' that puts the square under water for much of the winter.
The city recently banned the tradition of showering newly-wed couples with rice as part of its bid to tackle the pigeon menace.
